Research on preparation process for the in situ nanosized Zr(Y)O2 particles dispersion-strengthened tungsten alloy through synthesizing doped hexagonal (NH4)0.33·WO3

In this article, the in situ nanosized Zr(Y)O2 particles uniformly distributed in the tungsten alloy was successfully prepared through synthesizing doped α-HATB powder and spark plasma sintering process. The processing route involves a molecular-level liquid–liquid doping technique that causes a large number of nanosized particles within tungsten grains. The synthesis mechanism of α-HATB and phase evolution were detailedly investigated. Over 75% of W–Zr(Y)O2 powders particles are less than 3 μm. The determined Sw values (5.7), coefficient of uniformity Cu (2.3) of the W-0.5% Zr(Y)O2 doped tungsten are 5.7 and 2.3, respectively, both indicating the narrower size distribution. The average size of Zr(Y)O2 particles in prepared W alloy are about 250 nm under SEM observation. Through milling of these powders, the particles in W-0.5%Zr(Y)O2 alloy and 92.25W-4.9Ni-2.1Fe-0.75ZrO2 can further decrease to less than 100 nm in size, which are 8–10 times smaller than those in the state-of-the-art review. [Display omitted] •A chemical doping process is applied to fabricate nanosized oxide within W grains.•α-HATB is synthesized and its reaction mechanism is investigated.•Doped ultra-fine W powders with a narrow particle size distribution are obtained.•Average Zr(Y)O2 particles’size in W alloys is about 250 nm under SEM observation.•Oxide particles in W alloy are 8–10 times smaller than those in published results.